Architect Day: Antoine Predock

His projects have impressive moves, the volume and the materials of the buildings make it seem part of the landscape with fascinating inserts. The architecture of Antoine Predock is a unique experience for its users.

Antoine Predock was born in 1936 in Lebanon, Missouri. He studied at the School of Architecture at the University of New Mexico and graduated from Columbia University. But it was in New Mexico where he cultivated his early concepts, learning to respect the cultural roots of the site, which serves as a principle for all his works.

“ New Mexico has formed my experience in an all-pervasive sense. I don't think of New Mexico as a region. I think of it as a force that has entered my system, a force that is composed of many things … Lessons learned in the American Southwest apply anywhere in the world - my "regionalism" is portable.”

In addition to the natural conditions of the site, such as prevailing winds and movement of the sun that are basic to any project, Predock believes in the existing aura of the space, a transcendental power that emanates from the earth. Too philosophical? Looking at his work not so much.

Influences

During his period at Columbia University, Predock got involved with dance and body in space through the work of Jennifer Masley, Merce Cunningham, Yvonne Rainier, and then Anna Halprin.

“This influenced my work profoundly. I think of my buildings as processional events, as choreographic events; they are an accumulation of vantage points both perceptual and experiential.”

His early education was based on modernism and considers the influence of of a young Louis Kahn, very important for his career. The intensity and attention to Frank Lloyd Wright's details were also important for him.

Projects

Some of his projects seem more to be acts of nature, as if the ground shifted for a moment and stopped again. However, other projects seem to be in constant motion, telling a story in each detail of the building. All these elements added up to a line of simple raw materials, makes a mere look at his work become an indescribable experience.

In 2006, Predock was awarded the AIA Gold Medal, joining a select group of award-winning architects. The office Antoine Predock Architect PC now has 3 studios: Taipei, California and identified as its base, New Mexico.

School of Architecture and Planning, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Trinity River Audubon Center, Dallas, Texas, USA

Highlands Pond House, Colorado, USA

Rice University South Plant, Houston, Texas, USA

San Diego Padres Ballpark, San Diego, California, USA

Cornerstone Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

Mesa del Sol Town Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Robert Hoag Rawlings Public Library, Pueblo, USA

Student Activity and Recreation Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Austin City Hall and Public Plaza, Austin, Texas, USA

Flint RiverQuarium, Albany, Georgia

Logjam House, Rio Blanco, USA

Gateway Center and Plaza, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

Arizona Science Center, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

“Critical to the spirit in my work is the enigmatic quality of the desert. You think you've got it, you think you understand; then you turn over a rock or crawl under a larger rock and you discover other worlds, other realms within.”

Venice House, Venice, California, USA

West Mesa House, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Dance Studio, San Diego, California, USA

Social Sciences and Humanities Building, Davis, California, USA

Mesa Public Library, Los Alamos, USA

Rosenthal House, Manhattan Beach, California, USA

“I personally retain a hands-on connection to my design process working with clay, ink, pastel and collage, but I feel deeply connected to
the digital realm at the same time. Computer technologies and the expansive internet only make my studio’s process richer, more complex and more complete than ever before. I have extraordinarily talented, young colleagues who have grown up in cyberspace.”

Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Winnipeg, Canada

National Palace Museum Southern Branch, Chiayi County, Taiwan

National Archive of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark

About the author of this post

My name is Marcelo Seferin, I’m an architect from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I’m the chief architect at Seferin Arquitetura, an office that works with architecture, interior design and sustainability projects.